Sue Ogrocki / The Associated Press
The Clippers’ Chris Paul, right, trying to get around Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, hit eight 3-pointers in Monday’s Game 1 of the seven-game series with the Thunder.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Immediate success as a young professional athlete can sometimes lead to a false sense of security, and Chris Paul was as guilty as anyone when his New Orleans Hornets found themselves in an epic seven-game series against the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 2008 playoffs.

Only 22 and an emerging NBA superstar, Paul had led the young Hornets to 56 wins in the regular season, a division crown and the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Not only was he not surprised the Hornets took the Spurs to a seventh game — and bitterly upset they came up short — he pretty much assumed it was the prelude to even greater achievements.

Paul fully expected the Hornets would routinely get to the second round and beyond.

“You feel like you’re always going to be back there,” he said.

That never happened, of course. The Hornets fell on hard times, financially and team-wise, and Paul was eventually traded to the Clippers.

Now in his ninth season, he still hasn’t reached a conference final.

In fact, the Clippers’ 122-105 over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday is his first second-round playoff win since 2008.

Not that anyone is pinning it on Paul, who has been one of the great NBA point guards of his era. It’s just to point out how elusive postseason success can sometimes be, even for one of the best players in the game.

Which brings us to Game 1 against the Thunder, and Paul’s electrifying 32-point, 10-assist performance in which he sank a career-high eight 3-pointers and shot 12 of 14 from the field.

His aggressiveness — he attempted nine 3-pointers Monday after averaging just three per game during the regular season — and steely focus on both ends of the court suggest a star player burning with a sense of urgency to make his mark this postseason. And that means climbing higher and farther than ever before.

But that’s only half correct.

Paul is urgent, all right, but he’s like that every single day of his life.

He wants to win no matter the game, sport, stakes or opponent.

Turns out, a fatigued Clippers team coming off a grueling seven-game series against the Golden State Warriors — which wrapped up just 48 hours before in a draining finale — needed a jump start.

Paul read the situation and went to work.

“I thought his being aggressive at the start of the game really set the tone throughout the game,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.

It’s what Paul does.

If that means scoring 32 points, fine.

If it means scoring 10, which he doesn’t rule out for Game 2, he’s prepared to do that as well.

This isn’t Russell Westbrook, his Oklahoma City counterpart who never seems happy unless he’s one of the focal points offensively — and in Westbrook’s case that means hoisting up a bunch of shots every game.

Paul is a point guard in the classic sense of the job.

With the ball in one hand and control of the game in the other, it’s his responsibility to probe and dissect the opponent, figure out the vulnerabilities and exploit them successfully enough to win a basketball game.

The means and the manner matter not.

Just the bottom line.

“I’m one of those people, whatever it takes to win. I don’t care,” Paul said. “I don’t care. I’m never gonna lead the league in scoring or anything like that. It’s just whatever to try and win.”

In other words, don’t expect Paul to get wrapped up in the emotional high of his offensive explosion Monday and thinking of equaling or surpassing it.

And don’t assume he got tricked into thinking a big individual scoring night is the recipe for victory.

Because Game 2 might unfold in a completely contradictory way to Game 1.

Paul will primarily be guarded by Westbrook in this series — and vice versa. And while that looks like an even matchup, it’s vastly different than the assignment Paul drew in round one against the Warriors’ Stephen Curry.

Curry is a constantly moving shooter who forces his defender to keep up. That means running alongside him all game, and often into punishing picks.

“It’s a tough task,” Griffin said.

And it means conserving energy.

Westbrook is bigger and more physical than Curry, but he isn’t nearly as active running off screens. That means a less demanding defensive cover for Paul — at least from an endurance standpoint — and should leave him fresher on the other end.

Left unsaid is the other element of the Westbrook factor.

By attacking him early and often, Paul lured Westbrook into a bit of a trap.

The Thunder’s All-Star point guard can sometimes get caught in the individual game within the game. If his man is going off offensively, he often feels the need to retaliate.

In doing so, he often takes the Thunder completely out of their flow by going one-on-one rather than moving the ball to open teammates.

The Thunder went stagnant, and Paul and the Clippers responded by building a 24-point lead.

Paul led the way, this time shouldering much of the scoring load.

It might be completely different in Game 2.

Or maybe not.

One thing is for sure. It will be Paul deciding the best course of action.

Vincent Bonsignore is an NFL columnist for the Southern California News Group. Having covered the Los Angeles sports scene for more than two decades, Bonsignore has emerged as one of the leading voices on the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, the NFL and NFL relocation.

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